Quote:
Originally Posted by HankHanegraaff
Excerpt from Hank Hanegraaff's statement about the Local Church:
"I actually started my own journey, with respect to going back and looking at the ancient church, as a result of being president of CRI, and being a leader of an organization that believed that a particular group that known as "the Recovery", was cultic. We had position papers on them. When someone would contact us we'd give them those position papers. I met with the leading ones in that movement of the Holy Spirit, and the very things that we said they denied, they affirmed in that meeting, so I pulled all of the statements we had about that organization out of circulation.
We started a six year primary research project on this group (we didn't know it would take that long) . That took me to many different places in Asia where the group is largest, particularly China. And many other places in Asia - Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. And at the end of that research project we came to the conclusion that we were wrong. Well, we splashed in large letters across our flagship magazine, Christian Research Journal, "We Were Wrong". And we told the story of how we were wrong - how what we said before was wrong. Through that we became not separated brothers, we became united.
So we have differences to this day - significant differences - perhaps on secondary issues. But I have no doubt that these are brothers in the Lord. And that their whole move of the Holy Spirit is a move of recovery. It's called the Recovery! (It's called the Local Churches in some places, but it's called the Recovery.) Why? Because they're seeking to recover the truths that were taught historically in the ancient church, and then to apply them today. And one of the great truths that they have uncovered, as part of the recovery, is deification. And that was the very thing that was foremost in our mind, and in the minds of many cult experts, that made them a cult. They say that "we can become God". They do say that, but they don't ever say that like a Mormon would say. They say that in that we can become a God, but not as God is in the Godhead. Meaning we can partake of the energies of God, we can partake of the essence of God, for God is ennoble in his essence. And so they're recovering truths. Well that started me....They're looking back throughout history at the church and recovering truths that had been lost. Maybe there's some truths that I'm missing as well.
And that really became not only a point of unification (instead of carping from the fringes and saying "that's a cultic group") we met together and it changed our perception, in fact, it was people in that move of the Spirit that I saw in far-flung places around the world that gave me a hunger for life. I knew about the Lord, and I knew doctrinal truth, but I did not experience the life that some of these people, who may have had less intellectual or spiritual or theological acumen that I have, but they had a living, vibrant relationship with the Lord, which I pined after, and that opened the floodgates for me."
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Poster’s note: I’m not allowed to post my thoughts on the main page, so I have to drag other’s posts from that side of discussion and bring them over here to the alt- site to comment.
To a reader of the scripture who would not fall for the fog of the trinitarian error, Hanegraff’s error should be apparent. He seems to have found something he calls “experience the life” in the “recovery”. Lee’s big thing was the “experience of life” emanating from his processed triune god theology. Needless to say, the apostles never taught of a triune god, let alone of a processed one, and neither did Jesus. John records Jesus’ teaching as this Jn 17.3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.“ Jesus’ teaching is that eternal life comes from a knowing of the Father- the only true God, and knowing the one that the true God sent, Jesus, the anointed one. The gospel preached in the NT is all about this. The epistles direct the believers to continue in this, and strengthen and build one another up in this faith. As Jesus told his disciples, he would build his church on the very revelation given to Peter, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God.
For Hanegraaff to think he is come upon new light after 2000 years, is as delusional as those who think W Lee discovered the secret of Christian living and was the minister of the age. The 3-5th century triune god fallacy which rules modern Christianity, as Babylon ruled over the Jews because of their departure from the one True God, brings people to follow every strange teaching that follows it. How many centuries have devout people followed Maryology and felt they were close to God- it still goes on today! Being fervently zealous for spiritual myths does not build the church!
Hanegraaff, in the video, now seems to ascribe to transubstantiation as well. The discussion in the video is about the current condition of the evangelical church and a moaning about all the different teachings and practices amongst the multitude of divisions. Francis Chan doesn’t know what to do, and here is Hanegraaff directing him to trinitarian orthodoxy, which was the source of all the confusion and false teachings to begin with! His talk about the “ancient church” is a gross error, in that the ancient is really the 3-5 century roots that departed from the foundational church given to us by Paul. To a 6th century Christian that did not agree with the false doctrines in the creeds and wanted to follow the truth as delivered by Jesus and the apostles, the “ancient church” would not be so ancient, but would rather be that monster that, joined with the Roman Empire to persecute, torture, murder, and obliterate anyone that did not go along with their new religion. After 1500 years, Hanegraaff regards this monstrosity as the Christian faith we should all return to. Unbelievable!
The church definitely does need to be recovered- back to the foundational roots given to us by Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God. The Paul who told us that there is but one God, the Father. And admonished us to keep the oneness by professing such. It looks like Hanegraaff has fallen down another rabbit hole and wants to take others with him.